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Neio Seisan
Standing at the gates of Andul, you begin your walk towards Neio Seisan, the city of the dead. You spend a good hour walking down a dusty dirt road that has seen much travel throughout it's existence. To the south is a small fishing village set against a mountain with a large lake at it's base, where fishermen can be seen tending to ships that carry supplies down the river and into the eastern sea. You travel around the mountain's base, and come across a lonely shrine surrounded by goats. As you stop to rest at the shrine, you notice there doesn't seem to be anyone attending the shrine, except for a small herd of goats standing around eating grass. You leave before the goats get rowdy, and continue westward. Another hour comes and goes, and your journey has been wholly uneventful in the vast stretch of country-roads, but you can begin to see the crest of a large castle on the horizon. On your way, you're passed by a large metal cart that you recognize as transporting the dead further up the road to the castle. Riding on the top are several white robed clerics, and a warrior staring down at you as they pass. You pass by a sign further up the road that reads "Neio Seisan Concordant: With respect to the keepers, refrain from using magic. You are being watched.", and a sigil of an eye drawn in black ink below the message. Neio Seisan starts to take shape as you come closer, a massive octagonal castle with 8 spires at each point that hold massive chains that lay further in the fortress. A thicket of trees begins to take form, and behind them you can see houses standing evenly across the road from each other. Behind every house is a grey iron fence that holds a graveyard, with the names of wealthy families over the closed archway. As you cross the threshold of trees, you notice the town surrounding Neio Seisan is eerily quiet, with very few people outside of their houses. Occasionally another metal cart passes by and up the road towards the castle, different people coming and going. At the center of town is a massive obsidian statue of a large beast sitting on a sphere, with a plaque inscribed with "All that he might help us see"; the statue has several white pearls set into it where the eyes are...and there are about a hundred eyes on this monster's body. Your typical town thrives here, with guild houses, shops, restaurants, and there's even a live band that plays at an amphitheater near the south end of town. You travel around, take in the sights, and stop into a tavern for the evening. Surprisingly, this is where all the life is at; the bar is filled with warriors, mages, bards, and rogues talking, laughing, drinking, and sharing stories. You hear the story of a rogue that was trapped between a hoard of undead and a cliffside, talking about how he climbed up to escape death. Another story follows, where a mage used a grease spell to slick a rockslide into crushing a group of undead. You're slightly confused, as you haven't seen any undead in the area, or any fighting. You retire to your room, with brightly colored silk sheets, and the finest feather pillows making your stay a royal affair. The following day arrives without any complications, and you leave your room to begin your inspection of the castle. The road ends at a pair of tall black iron gates, with 4 paladins posted outside. They stop you, search you over, and discuss the nature of the area with you. There are a lot of precautions when allowing guests into the castle, and you're given a list of rules to follow before you're allowed further inside. You're escorted by the captain of the guard to the next checkpoint, where clerics give you various cleansing rituals and blessings. As you approach the castle, you begin to see thousands of stained glass windows lining the dark brick walls. You enter a large gateway and are immediately surrounded by a hustle of clerics and paladins walking in all directions, busy with righteous tasks. There is a family standing over an altar with a body on top, and a team of priests are performing a spell over it. There is a series of banners on the walls with the various city marks on them, hanging over doorways. Within each of these rooms are representatives for their cities who see to the organization of deaths that happen in each domain. The massive hallway spirals around the entire castle, but the courtyard is open through the archways that line the walls. Entering a random archway, you immediately see the 8 chains from the spires holding onto the disc that literally is the courtyard. The chains are hooked into the massive stone disc through a series of fine-tuned magic and architecture, allowing the disc to casually shift with the wind. You carefully step onto the disc using leveraged steps attached to the castle, as below you you can see far down into the darkness; you faintly catch the image of another disc below this, and a bright ghostly blue light below you. As you make your way across the courtyard disc, you can feel the entire ground beneath you lurch. You ask a half-orc warrior sitting on a bench eating his lunch about the disc, to which he replies it's a necessary part of a powerful magic sigil. Standing in the courtyard, and dismissing the shifting disc beneath your feet, you can see many dorms lining the inside of the castle on higher floors, to where windows provide a wide scope of the happening in the courtyard. The half-orc comments that the upper floor is typically reserved for acolytes of the Seisan, and is part of a kind of college of medical arts. You find your way back into the circular hallway in the thick walls of the castle, and venture to the stairwell flooded with people coming and going. You choose to venture downward to get a better view of what you saw earlier through the gaping cracks. You wait patiently as an elderly priest walks down the stairs and is assisted into a classroom where he begins to teach a lecture on the nature of undeath. You stand at the second circle of Neio, and the room is a ghostly cave carved into a beautiful castle figure a lit by calming blue torches that line the inside. The archways are fewer here, and you struggle to find a way into the "lower courtyard", but eventually you find 1 of two entrances into the inner chambers. The disc this time is made of a bright purple crystal that is being held in place by 4 chains from the upper floor's disc. All along the lower disc is carved runes of various arcane inscription, and with a bit of staring you discern the nature of the sigils is a series of protection spells far above your comprehension. The crystal floor is clear, and radiates with a finely tuned magical presence that can be seen as raw energy glowing from the center of it. Below the disc, which you can faintly make out, is another chain connected to a third disc. All around you are clerics of indiscernible power and prestige, sorcerers with connections to the primal and holy forces of the world, and wizards that string reality through the air like it was an illusion. The sense of being among very powerful forces, both socially and magically, gives you a sense of vertigo. Just what is happening here that requires so much attention and recognition? A frail looking old man approaches you from behind, and calmly greets you. His name is Radiius Mallistri, a pale elf dressed in common looking clothing. He declares himself one of the 13 Masters of Castle Neio, "The Hand of Pale Death", and offers his hand up to yours to shake with a grin on his face. Nervously you do, and his grip is firm, unlike a typical old man. He invites you into the catacombs for a very detailed inspection of the castle. The two of you descend further into the darkness and approach the third and final magical disc suspended within the temple. This crystal is blue and red, and seems to be made of a weird mixture of white quartz and blue obsidian. You enter the single Archway onto the third disc, and immediately you can feel your spirit connecting with the room. Carved into the walls are detailed symbols with gems inlaid that project the idea of transcending the mortal plane and into the spirit world. There are roughly twenty people standing around the center chain, made of magically infused red metal; It glows supernaturally and seems to be radiating with the energy of the previous discs. Mallistri comments that this is the portal room, and that by committing yourself to the chain, you are given access to the true Neio Castle hidden between worlds. As he finishes speaking, a group of 5 adventurers touch the chain and disappear from sight. Radiius smiles at you, and comments that you currently have no reason to enter the spirit castle. You agree, and comment that you wish to meet with the other Masters. Radiius nods, and brings you to the third floor's hallways, where the many long corridors of the dead are preserved and protected. The hallway spirals down further into the ground, and you begin to hear quite the commotion further down into the cavern, Radiius comments that to go further is to subject yourself to the dangers of the Burrow. The Manifest Burrow, he corrects himself, is a warzone between the kingdom of man and the devils that thrive below it. You begin to see scores of soldiers sitting, standing, or laying along the walls as you spiral further down to where only torchlight offers reprieve from the darkness. You meet with a bladecoat who offers you his name as Kerathis Yago, one of the 13 masters of Castle Neio, "The Angel Eyes the Aperture". He is dressed in a coat of magical blades, his body type unassumingly small with hair of soft brown, spiked away from his head like his short ears. He takes you over the barriers and through security checkpoints further down into what appears to be a massive cave system that extends further than your eyes can see. All around is shouting of combat, as warriors of all rank and style do battle with a hoard of evil. Kerathis remarks that you're just in time to see some the interesting stuff, and you watch him direct his soldiers through combat maneuvers. With everything visibly slain, the soldiers begin to rebuild what's left of a stone fortress previously torn apart by hostile invaders. You're left with many questions, and are compelled to ask about the other masters. Kerathis gives you an uninterested grunt, explaining that the Inner-Five don't meet with outsiders unless of an emergency. He goes on to explain the importance of their continued work supporting Argus, the "Endless Eyes Guardian", in that they cannot typically deviate from the arcane work protecting the world from spiritual evil. The two of you continue to talk about the nature of Neio, the ancient leader that created the castle, and how his spirit commands it from the otherside. As you exit, you meet with several more masters, a black skinned orcish monk named Gaullus Fanatia, "Holding the Abyss Laughing"; a quiet druidic woman named Fasha Temnia, "The Hand of Cypress Script"; and a sharply pale figure wrapped in brown cloth, who's emaciated form is adorned only by a silver symbol of his faith. The figure does not speak to you, but Kerathis remarks him as the nameless master, "The Embrace of the Cold", and that he has existed well before Kerathis Yago joined the castle. Returning to the surface, all is calm. No sign of the war that rages below the surface of the world, and everyone continues on peacefully tending to the economy of the village surrounding the castle.